Class 10 NCERT Solutions English Chapter 3 - The Midnight Visitor
The Midnight Visitor Exercise 14
Solution 1
Ausable had a small room in a musty corridor on the sixth and top floor of a gloomy French hotel scarcely the setting for a romantic adventure usually associated with secret agents. He was very fat and sloppy, dull company to be with and though he spoke French and German passably, he had never altogether lost the American accent he had brought to Paris from Boston twenty years ago. Instead of getting messages slipped into his hands by dark-eyed beauties, he only received a prosaic telephone call.
Solution 2
Fowler is a young and romantic writer who had come to meet Ausable.
His first authentic thrill of the day came when they both entered Ausable’s room and Ausable closed the door behind them and switched on the light for halfway across the room, stood a man with a small automatic pistol in his hand.
The Midnight Visitor Exercise 15
Solution 1
Max got in using the passkey.
Solution 2
Ausable says he thought Max got in through the balcony. He told Max that it was the second time in a month that somebody had got into his room through that nuisance of a balcony.
The Midnight Visitor Exercise 18
Solution 1
Ausable did not fit any description of a secret agent Fowler had ever read. Secret agents are smart, young, attractive intelligent mysterious figures who work day and night, who deal with espionage and danger , are associated with the crack of pistols and drugs in wine, and speak various languages with full confidence and clarity. They work on dangerous cases and have either beautiful, smart assistants or are associated with dark eyed beauties that find them irresistible and slip messages into their hands.
They are always thinking and working on their cases.
Ausable on the other hand lived in a gloomy unromantic hotel, was fat, sloppy, not too good at languages had a distinct American accent and was dull company to be with.
Solution 2
Ausable managed to make Max believe that there was a balcony attached to his room. He began by saying that it was the second time in a month that somebody had got into his room through that nuisance of a balcony. When Max questioned him about the balcony he replied with extreme irritation that it was not his balcony. He then explained that the room used to be part of a large unit, and the next room seen through the door used to be the living room. It had the balcony, which extends under his window now. You could get onto it from the empty room two doors down.
The story is very convincing as it is narrated in detail yet in a casual manner and with full conviction.
Solution 3
Ausable thought up his plan for getting rid of Max right at the beginning. The moment he entered the room and saw Max, he seated himself on the armchair and in a casual manner started his story about the balcony that did not exist. His extreme irritation on being questioned by Max about the balcony, his anger with the management, his explanation of how the balcony was not actually his balcony are all parts of the story that he tells to trap Max.
Since he had already asked the waiter to bring him a bottle of drink and two glasses he was certain of the waiters arrival and so was able to tell Max that it was the police whom he had asked to check in to make sure everything was alright. All his actions therefore coincided with the sequence of events because he himself had put them in order.
He continued to behave in a calm, normal manner when he told Fowler, who was terrified, that there was no police and that he had expected the waiter to come in with his order showing that he was not surprised by the sudden turn of events and Max’s turning up at his room.
Such a detailed and convincing plan could only be thought out by a master mind. Ausable was wise, intelligent, had presence of mind, a strong sense of humour, was able to remain calm in a desperate situation and could react quickly. He was therefore able to make his plan work according to the events that happened.
